LEGAL HERMENEUTICS

LEGAL HERMENEUTICS

Instructions: Answer three (3) of the following six (6) questions. You can use primary and secondary sources to develop your answers. Be sure to follow pertinent bibliographical rules and formats. Your answers will be evaluated by their clarity, concision and subject matter coherence. Your answers should not exceed 15 pages, 8 x 11 paper, double space. The answers must be turned no later than on July 29th, 2021

1. What are the similarities and differences between the philosophical hermeneutics of H.G. Gadamer and the legal hermeneutics of E. Betti. Pay particular attention to the importance each gives to the relationship between the phenomenon of understanding and interpretation, and the role played by language.

2. Discuss the diverse interpretative theories for Constitutional adjudication. Pay particular attention to Scalia’s textualism vis-à-vis originalism, and the politico-philosophical underpinnings to this hermeneutical approach. Use District of Columbia v Heller , 554 US ___ (2008) as case example of this interpretative approach.

3. “The limits of my language are the limits of my world”, stated Wittgenstein in his early work Tractatus Logicus-Philosophicus . Discuss the interplay between meaning and intent with regards to hermeneutics. Pay particular attention to the philosophical conception of language and the limits the law tries to impose on it.

4. How are we to understand Derrida’s claim that deconstruction, if there is such a thing, is justice?

5. What are the core arguments in favor of a moral reading of the law according to Dworkin. Pay particular attention to the underling principles of liberalism and to the relationship between law and politics for purposes of interpretation.

6. Make your own question and answer it.